The BBC's new(ish) afternoon quiz show hosted by Alexander Armstrong. The premise is a simple variation on Family Fortunes. Give 100 people 100 seconds to give as many answers to a question as possible. The contestants on the show then have to find the most obscure answers and score as few points as possible. For example, if the question was "name Harrison Ford films" you'd do bad by saying Star Wars or one of the Indy movies, but the likes of Regarding Henry, The Conversation or Hanover Street you'd do well. In the final round the contestants have to find a pointless answer (ie one no one said) to win the jackpot.
While Pointless is great fun, at 45 minutes there's just a little too much waffle. Why do quiz show producers think we, the viewer, want to know about the contestants lives? We don't, we just want to answer questions.
Today's final question was "name any books written by John Grisham". Can you guess the pointless answer without cheating?
Is it The Horsefucker? The one with the lawyer who fucks a horse? The movie version's apparently in development hell.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about the quiz show chit chat. Nobody cares about the sordid lives of these ghastly proles, when you could be fitting in more trivia. Millionaire is the worst of the lot. About six questions a show, and five of them are retarded. But, of course, we're treated to a lengthy description of what these greedy bastards will spend their undeserved winnings on. Before they've even won them.
University Challenge is the daddy. Paxman doesn't pretend give a shit about the contestants, and holds them all in complete contempt until they prove otherwise and a telling eyebrow is raised. And the questions all fall into two agreeable camps.
a) I know that
b) who the fuck would ever know that?